The Hand-in-Hand (HiH) Initiative
What is the
Hand-in-Hand
Initiative
The Hand-in-Hand (HiH) Initiative is FAO’s country-led, data-driven initiative for identifying and financing agrifood investment priorities to accelerate the transformation of agrifood systems.
The Initiative prioritizes countries and territories where high levels of poverty and hunger overlap with significant agricultural potential, and where targeted investment can generate the greatest economic and development impact. Using advanced geospatial analytics, economic modeling, and technical analysis, Hand-in-Hand helps countries identify priority territories and value chains.
Governments then develop investment plans with FAO’s technical support, translating national priorities into portfolios of bankable projects. Multilateral development banks, international financial institutions, and traditional donors help reduce financial risk, creating the conditions for private investment. This multilayered approach to systematically reducing technical and financial risks is at the heart of the Initiative’s innovative financing model.
Since its launch in 2019, Hand-in-Hand has connected national priorities with financing to raise incomes, improve food security and nutrition, and strengthen resilience to shocks and uncertainties. The Initiative is an FAO flagship and one of FAO’s core priority programme areas.
Turning priorities into investment
Despite tremendous agricultural potential, many countries face challenges attracting agrifood investment because they lack the information, analysis, and credible investment plans that investors need. The Hand-in-Hand Initiative helps close this gap by translating national priorities into investable opportunities and bringing together governments, international financial institutions, donors, and private investors to systematically reduce technical and financial risks and mobilize investment.
Hand-in-Hand Videos
The FAO Hand-in-Hand Initiative is a powerful, data-driven approach designed to eradicate poverty and hunger by modernizing agrifood systems. Discover how this global partnership leverages advanced geospatial modeling and strategic investment to transform vulnerable communities and create a more sustainable future for everyone.
Transforming high-risk agricultural zones into thriving, bankable opportunities by leveraging massive global data to drive smarter investment. The video illustrates how this data-driven approach is successfully mobilizing billions of dollars to combat global hunger and build resilient food systems for the future.
Hand-in-Hand Initiative Investment Forum 2026
Join us from OCTOBER 13 to 16 2026
FAO HEADQUARTERS - ROME, ITALY →
FAO's annual agrifood investment forum provides a platform for governments to present investment plans – developed through the Hand-in-Hand (HIH) Initiative – to a global audience of agrifood investors, offering a unique opportunity for partnership building to accelerate agrifood systems transformation for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Hand-in-Hand Main Sections
Core Principles
What is Hand-in-Hand? A country-led, data-empowered initiative that helps close the agrifood financing gap and accelerate the transformation toward more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems.
Member Countries
The Initiative supports 87 countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Near East and North Africa.
Geospatial Platform
With access to more than 2 million data and information layers, the platform serves as the evidence base for identifying territories where agricultural transformation have the greatest potential for alleviating poverty and hunger.
Data Lab
The Data Lab leverages non-conventional data sources and uses data science and artificial intelligence to fill data gaps.
Monitoring and Evaluation Dashboard
The dashboard provides regular, real-time reporting of progress against programme milestones and SDG objectives. It also provides key impacts and cost-benefit analysis.